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Charges dropped against woman first arrested in deadly I-4 crash
Charges have been dropped against a woman who spent 13 days in jail after Florida Highway Patrol troopers arrested her in connection with a deadly hit-and-run crash on Interstate 4.
ORLANDO, Fla. - Prosecutors have dropped all charges against a woman who spent nearly two weeks in jail after Florida Highway Patrol investigators mistakenly accused her in a deadly Interstate 4 hit-and-run crash that killed three people.
The State Attorney’s Office dismissed the case against Lindsey Isaacs and instead filed charges against Alisa Montalvo, whom investigators now say was actually responsible for the Oct. 4, 2025 crash.
The backstory:
On October 4, Jesteny Deno was headed out from Elev8 with family and friends. It was the last time she’d ever see her father alive.
The FHP says the driver of a Dodge Durango was speeding down I-4 and swerving through traffic, hit Joaquin Deno’s motorcycle, killing him.
Moments later, the FHP says the driver hit a Ford Focus, pushing it into Jorge and Nancy Salinas’ Honda Pilot. They died as well.
The arrests
The FHP now says Alisa Montalvo, a friend of the Denos who had been with them earlier that evening, was responsible for the crash.
Investigators say she got extensive body work trying to hide what she’d done – new driver’s side doors, new airbags, new tires.
The reason she had so much time to fix up her car is because troopers had originally arrested 23-year-old Lindsey Isaacs.
The witness
Justin Eiland saw the lead-up to the crash, and pulled over to try to help afterward. He went up to the crashed Honda Pilot, trying to help the two people inside.
"There was no pulse, there was no breathing, they had already passed away," he said.
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Eiland says he thought the Dodge Durango involved in the crash was black, but says everything happened quickly, and the crash took place in the dark of night.
"So much happened so quickly and with the loss of three lives in one instant, the priority was really on trying to render aid and show care to the people that were still there on scene. Rather than trying to track down the person that had caused it."
The discrepancies
Court records now show troopers relied heavily on Eiland’s account of what happened when arresting Isaacs. He’d reported seeing a black Dodge Durango cause the destruction.
But a 911 caller said it was a maroon Durango involved in the incident. That caller even provided a partial tag number, which matches Montalvo’s license plate, but not Isaacs’. Another witness had Montalvo’s full tag number.
None of that is mentioned in Isaacs’ arrest report.
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Traffic cameras caught Isaac’s black Durango 3 miles west of the scene 2 minutes before the hit-and-run, and troopers claimed her car had scuff marks and evidence of a crash. The FHP kept that car in an evidence lot for 6 months before arresting her, but her arrest report does not mention any further forensic evidence that would link that car to the crash.
In contrast, Montalvo’s arrest report shows extensive investigation was done prior to her arrest. For instance, the investigators analyzed data from the Event Data Recorder and showed the night of the crash, the airbags deployed 5 seconds after the car had been driven at 112 miles per hour.
A new analysis by a different FHP team found Isaacs’ car had no damage, suggesting it was involved in a crash. After she spent 13 days in jail, they dropped the charges against her.
Isaacs’ attorney just released video of her car, which the FHP had in an evidence lot for 6 months before deciding to arrest her. It has no visible damage.
The Source: This story was written based on information shared by the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) and witness Justin Eiland.